• Kwabena Yeboah revealed that as part of the ‘ways and means’ water for cooking was imported from the North

• He said the club had to stay in a ship at Tema all as part of the ‘ways and means’

Kwabena Yeboah has disclosed that for the first time in the life of Kumasi Asante Kotoko, the club in planning to beat Accra Hearts of Oak in Accra, had to use some “ways and means” to secure victory in the game.

According to him, in his early days when he was following the club, he was heavily involved in black magic, popularly referred to as ‘juju.’

Speaking on ‘Starr Chat’, the host of GTV’s Sports Highlights programme noted that at the time, he was young with infantile brains and he believed in that “nonsense.”

Recounting the episode, he said Kumasi Asante Kotoko were to meet Accra Hearts of Oak, who at the time were having the ‘fearsome fivesome,’ as part of the “ways and means” some of the water Kotoko used in cooking was ‘imported’ from the northern part of the country.

“And we would come to Accra and be defeated by Hearts of Oak and then we’ll be told that on our way, we crossed a certain river and that diluted the potency of the juju so, the next time around we had to fly and then we were beaten again. [The excuse this time was] when the players arrived in Accra, some of them soiled their robes so Kotoko for the first time had to go and stay in a ship in Tema.”

He said, one day Joe Sam, a former Sekondi XI Wise and Kotoko player visited his uncle Kwaku Siaw and said he does not believe in the juju that they have been using.

Kwabena Yeboah said, “it is most unfortunate that clubs in Ghana continue to heavily rely on juju. I have heard some players emphasize that juju works in football.”

He said he has no patience for people who talk about juju working in football because it is so “stupid, it’s only a dead brain who will believe that juju plays football. It is something that we should not countenance at all.”

Yeboah further indicated that it must be condemned with no uncertainty in terms of the notion juju plays football. “Look, some charlatans just exploit the clubs, take monies from them and pretend football is played in the supernatural world…it is absolute rubbish because (for) those who believe that juju plays football, how many African teams have won the club world football, how many African teams have won the World Cup. Football has grown so scientific that, teams are spending huge sums of money investing in their infrastructure, their diet, paying players well, buying best materials…”

He stressed that it is very “backward” for anyone to think that juju plays football. “Juju plays no role in football.”

Source: www.ghanaweb.com